The Great Escape

The latest trend for friends, family and corporate team outings—escape rooms, where teams of 2–10 people solve a series of riddles and clues together in order to ‘escape’ a fabricated adventure.

Local filmmakers and artisans, Chris and Anne Lukeman, opened the first escape room in Champaign County in the fall of 2015—Champaign-Urbana Adventures in Time and Space. While escape rooms have long been popular in Canada and in large metropolitan areas, they are new in the Midwest. The Lukemans, who are passionate about local arts and craftsmanship, worked collaboratively with members of the community to create a truly unique adventure. Their first room, Office Hours, utilized props that were hand-crafted specifically for the one hour adventure where your team is tasked with saving the world.

As your team enters this new world, you begin searching for clues that allow you to unlock additional rooms or clues as you work collaboratively to complete your mission in an hour or less.

Champaign-Adventures in Time and Space currently has three escape rooms running concurrently, with plans to change out games every few months providing continuous entertainment for those seeking a new type of adventure. The Lukemans also offer pop-up escape rooms with short 10-minute adventures ideal for meetings, conventions and events.